


Christmas Pictures

by jsuislfrost



Category: Heroes of Olympus - Fandom, Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Nico di Angelo - Freeform, Will Solace - Freeform, collab with royal-society-of-pandas, dumb Christmas story, is this a collab?, percy jackson - Freeform, solangelo, who cares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:13:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5418377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jsuislfrost/pseuds/jsuislfrost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico has a date with Will, and leaves a certain son of Poseidon alone in his cabin to nap. Halfway through the date, a mysterious stranger shows up with a picture that leaves Will in a pile of giggles on the ice, and Nico swearing revenge. <br/>Christmas-past funtimes, and Underworld family in sweaters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea royal-society-of-pandas and I had a while ago. She did a drawing, so you can go check out her tumblr (or mine) to see it. This is my response fic.

It should have been burned. He should have burned it with Hellfire and let it rot in Tartarus forever. It would have saved him so much drama, and Percy probably wouldn’t have ended in the infirmary, stealing Will’s attention away from him.

But, tragically, Nico had kept the Christmas photo from 2009. For what reasons, he didn’t know. Maybe to remind himself how far he’d come from being the pasty, sad boy from then. Maybe because he outgrew the Christmas jumper and wanted something to remind him of it.

Maybe it was because his father was smiling.

Next time though, Nico was leaving any future family photographs in his Underworld bedroom, where nosy sons of Poseidon won’t stumble across them.  

___

Percy had come for a visit, slumping into the Hades cabin and ignoring the eerie lighting, green torches and tense atmosphere that suggested the god of the Dead didn’t want Percy there. Nico hadn’t really wanted to tell him to get lost, because he looked exhausted, but he had a date with Will in ten minutes.

Luckily (or not) Percy fell asleep on the couch halfway through telling Nico about this place he and Annabeth had found in the city. It was apparently close enough for them both to reach university without running 40 miles, shortening the chances of having to fight a monster and being late for class.

Nico decided to leave him there. It was Christmas, after all. He put a fluffy, skull patterned blanket over Percy before pulling his aviator jacket and a black peacoat on, scarf wrapped snugly around his neck and hands firmly shoved in his pockets.

“Sleep well, Perce,” Nico said, shutting the door. He figured that, if Percy woke up before he got back, he’d stumble out and continue napping in the Poseidon cabin. Nico hadn’t expected Percy to wake up and decide to snoop around the room.

“Hey.” Nico looked up at the greeting, smiling as he saw Will waiting for him, leaning on the edge of the stairs. Nico took his hand out of his pocket to link their fingers, then hurriedly shoved both his and Will’s hands back into the pocket. Will snorted and placed a peck on Nico’s temple.

“Let’s away, boyfriend of mine,” Will declared. “I have a pair of ice-skating blades with your name on them and permission to leave the camp.”

Nico snorted, a faint blush lighting his cheeks, giddy smile hidden behind his scarf. He left happily with Will, forgetting there was a snoring son of Poseidon in his cabin.

___

Nico had fallen flat on his butt more times than he could count, but he was safe in the knowledge that however many hits he’d taken, Will had suffered double.

“My ass is going to be blue tomorrow,” he complained, rubbing his legs and bum, “and not just from the cold.”

“You,” Nico said, “are the biggest wuss.”

Will booped Nico’s nose. “You’re so mean to me!” he cried dramatically. “Can’t you see I’m suffering here?”

Nico crossed his arms. “I am indifferent,” he said. Will pouted at him, and Nico had to apply conscious effort to not smiling.

He was giving so much effort, in fact, that he didn’t notice that overly rugged-up stranger sidling up to Will. Like, sure, it was cold, but not four-jumpers-and-an-overcoat cold. Who needed sunglasses right now anyway? There wasn’t enough snow for the sunlight to reflect back into their eyes. It was also very clear that some moths had been eating the stranger’s pork-pie hat.

When they tapped Will on the shoulder though, Nico’s attention was all for the man in the trench coat and four jumpers. He was leaning over as they passed his boyfriend a piece of laminated paper, ready to grab Will and run or possibly pull his sword if the stranger turned out to be a monster.

Will took the paper, frowning at the stranger and then looking at the paper, which turned out to be a photo. The man in the trench coat and four jumpers suddenly took his glasses off, and Nico received a wink from a pair of very familiar sea-green eyes.

Percy spy-in-training Jackson then high-tailed it out of there, trench coat flapping and pork-pie hat tumbling off his head. Nico was considering giving chase, just to see what was up, when suddenly raucous snickering, quickly evolving into uncontrolled laughter, erupted from behind him.

Will was doubled over, picture held loosely in his hand. His beanie had flopped into his eyes but he didn’t care to fix it, too busy staring and sniggering. Nico plucked the photo from Will’s hands, and his boyfriend collapsed on the cold ground in a puddle of giggly-Will.

Nico stared at the confiscated picture. Now he understood why Percy had run away so fast.

The photo showed Nico from six years earlier in a Christmas jumper that Persephone had made. It was black, with white snowflakes and skulls knitted into the black wool. Hades and Nico’s step mother were standing behind him in the picture, Persephone’s hair braided with flowers. Nico looked surly. But Hades was smiling, his dark eyes bright and pale skin shining as he flashed his teeth for the camera. Until recently, the photo had been tacked to Nico’s wall in the cabin, but it was clear now that he should have set it on fire.

Or never left Percy Jackson alone in his room.

“ _Percy Jackson!”_ Nico yelled, his eyes narrowing at the retreating figure of Percy and his stupid trench coat. “ _I’m going to kill you, so help me!”_

Percy ended up in the infirmary, one of Nico’s skeleton’s finger bones stuck up his nose and an amused Will Solace tending to him while the son of Hades was taken to the arena by Reyna to blow off steam before he set an undead army on the camp.


End file.
